


come find me again

by Crstalwolf



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Humanstuck, Meowrails, Post-Sburb, Post-Scratch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-09-13 13:16:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9125365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crstalwolf/pseuds/Crstalwolf
Summary: Your name is Nepeta Leijon.You keep meeting your neighbor. He is tall and he scares you. You want him to... To what? You don't know."Uh... hi? My name's Sollux. Sollux Captor. And I... I know you."





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Space Bro](https://archiveofourown.org/works/253758) by [JumpingJackFlash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JumpingJackFlash/pseuds/JumpingJackFlash). 



Your name is Nepeta Leijon. You live in a very nice apartment complex in the busy city where you work full-time at the zoo. You are experienced in many things, like knitting, hunting, and drawing. You like to spend as much time as you can in the wilderness. You don't know why. It feels right, it feels like something you should do.

You get up at six am. You take approximately ten minutes in the bathroom to get ready. You lend yourself a healthy slice of time, a startling twenty-five minutes, to eat breakfast and check in with your pet shrimp and to scribble down groceries and to check the news. You leave the house at six forty, with a lenience period of twenty minutes to make sure you can catch the bus in time. You never leave the house at six thirty or six thirty five.

You know you can leave when you hear the thump thumping of your neighbor's footsteps. You know you can leave when the elevator gives a cheerful ding. You know you can leave then. You avoid your neighbor like the plague, for good reason too. Whenever you see him, you get the strange urge to call him Equius. Which would be awkward. You get the strange need to pat him on the shoulder and reassure him, have him do the same to you. But you know that what you want is not what you need, you so simply shuffled your schedule and wait.

Today you have a day off due to the holidays. You have a peaceful and serene waking. You eat your breakfast and greet your pet shrimp. You do your day with a smile on your face and you go to check the mail, descending slippery steps that the bespectacled man on the first level warned you about.

You hum to yourself as you check through your mailbox, surprised to see a newspaper tucked into it. You didn't think that people actually ordered these anymore. You didn't order it yourself. So whose newspaper is it?

Someone behind you answers that question easily. "Miss, I believe that is mine." He speaks in a low-toned voice that only slightly raspy and it's all too familiar.

You turn. He's there. Your neighbor, the one you always try to avoid. So you check the mail, the name addressed on the envelopes. _Equius Zahhak_ , it reads and you realize you've opened the wrong mailbox. In a flush of shame and embarrassment, you hand him his mail. "Oh gosh, I'm so sorry! I didn't realize."

Equius (you were right about his name) gives a simple grunt in acceptance, taking his mail from your hands. "Thank you, Nepeta." With that, the hulking form of your neighbor retreats to the elevator, he presses a button and waits.

You open your mailbox, the correct one, and receive your mail, the correct mail. But then, you hear the ding of the elevator and stop. How did your neighbor know your name? You turn to ask him but he has already stepped into the waiting rise-chamber (where did you get that word?) and has departed. You're left blinking at silence and very confused.

You let it be and make your way up the stairs.

The door shuts with an affirmative click and you comfort yourself reading over the mail. Nothing, nothing, oh, a bill, nothing, then something. You squint at the lettering on the paper but you can't make it out. Shrugging, you recycle the letter. Must've been junk mail or something. Whatever the address may have been, it was too water-stained to read anymore.

The rest of the day goes by with little event.

===

You find yourself lucky that you got time off for the holidays, then the schedule picked right up off on the one day you don't work. Again, you take your time doing what you want. You wake up late, spend extra time in the bathroom, you greet your pet and carry forth. Today is a day you don't have to do anything.

Right up until the doorbell ring through your knitting of a blue hat. You think nothing of it. So you rise from your place on the couch and go to greet the visitor.

He is a thin and wiry man, standing well above your short height. He fidgets in front of your gaze. "Uh... hi? My name's Sollux. Sollux Captor. And I... I know you." He has a lisp. It rasps out against his words and he strains the emphasis on his i's. He looks uncertain in himself in front of your gaze, he seems certain in the fact that he knows you. Your intuition is never wrong.

You smile. "Why don't you come in?" you ask. "We can talk about whether or not you know me at all, because I don't know you."

At the words "I don't know you," the man seems hurt. He scratches his elbow, offers you a sheepish grin. "It's... I'm going to have to decline. But... You are Nepeta Leijon? You like cats, roleplaying, and hunting? You like to... uh... draw and 'ship' people?" This Sollux Captor person appears to become more and more restless. "We... uh..."

You wonder if you should call the police. "How would you know that about me?" you inquire, half-confused and half-threatened. Men who show up at a woman's door claiming to "know them" are threatening, yet your sense of danger does not kick in. You may have once known this man, but you do not know him anymore.

"We... We played a game together. It destroyed our home planet, we used to be trolls," the man blathers. "And we screwed up, had to reset everything. Everyone seems to have forgotten except me."

You've heard enough. Maybe you should call the police. "Hey, listen. If you're on drugs or something-"

He cuts you off. "No, no, I'm not, just, I remember these things! And... I was hoping you'd remember too." Sollux Captor looks sullen, but he begins to trudge off.

You get the distinct feeling that you are letting something, someone important go, but you simply shake your head as he rings on the doorbell of your neighbor, obviously prepared to repeat his whole mantra. You close the door right as your neighbor's opens, shaking your head as if to clear it. Best let dead birds lie.

That night, you dream of blue. A bright blue, a streak flashing under your claws as you laugh. A rough but firm hand sets itself on your head, you stick your tongue out at the owner of the hand, who holds a towel to his face and is wiping away sweat. He says something, you answer, then jump to him as he wraps his strong arms around you.

"Mighty night, Nepeta," he says to you, setting you to rest in an odd cocoon structure full of green slime. "Sleep strong."

You stick your tongue out at him again, but settle down nonetheless.

===

You wake up in a fuss. Well, since you started having strange dreams about a month ago, you always wake up in a fuss. Thank god you bartered for shift changes. You work longer hours, yes, but the time off it definitely worth it. You love your job unconditionally, but there are some things you cannot handle.

You've started to record what happens in your dreams. An angry boy with the zodiac Cancer on his shirt, yelling and wielding a sickle. A smug girl with an eyepatch and a robotic arm. A tall boy with a purple cape and a blue harpoon gun. A strong boy your age, who sets you to sleep and watches over you. Everyone, smiling. You don't realize you've started sobbing until you gulp down air and teardrops splatter the pages.

You rub away the sorrow of the dream and make your way to the kitchen when your doorbell rings. You answer the door and your neighbor stands there.

The two of you stare at each other for a while. You're dimly and faintly aware that he can see your red-rimmed eyes and you can see how he reflects your expression. Widened eyes, red from crying. Only he's not wearing his cracked shades.

"Where are your glasses?" you ask at the same time he asks, "Where is your hat?"

"What hat?" you answer as he answers, "What glasses?"

"I don't wear a hat," you say as he says, "I do not wear glasses."

You feel the sudden urge to laugh well up inside you. Suppressing the feeling, you clear your throat. "Um, hello."

"Greetings."

"Did you need something?" you question, staring up at his face as he stares down at yours.

The tall man appears flustered for a moment before he catches himself. The thought of "don't be so uptight, sweatquius!" flits through your mind. He clears his throat. "No, never mind me. I apologize profoundly for interrupting your morning." He excuses himself, begins to walk back.

The same feeling as when Sollux Captor left twists in your gut. "Wait!" you call. He stops. "Do you want to come in and have some tea?" You push your door wider in offer.

The man gives you a look. Hesitant. Waiting.

"You won't impose on anything, I've got nothing to do today anyways!" you chirp happily. "We could jam and stuff!" Jam and stuff? What are these words you're speaking? Where are they coming from?

He walks to you, mumbles something like "you goshdarned sillyface" under his breath, which you reply in manner. "I hope I am not intruding," he declares as he enters.

You smile. Something's going to go right today, you can feel it.

===

You two click instantly. While Equius is uptight, he does his best to play along with you. While you are loud, you do you best to tone your excitement down for him. It works out and you eventually memorize his schedule as well.

You work Monday to Wednesday from six am to six pm. Equius works Monday to Saturday from eight am to six pm. While you wake up earlier than he does, you both get home around the same time to have dinner.

These dinners usually consist of you bringing leftovers and Equius (trying and failing at) cooking. Almost always do you get reduced into laughter, with the stoic man chuckling along. The two of you get along so very well, it's almost as if you've known each other for your whole life.

One day, you leave your journal out unattended. Equius asks you about it. You try to brush it off, try to ignore it, but when you say it is nothing, he stares you in the eye in a firm but gentle way and asks quietly, "Is it really nothing?" These are familiar words spoken in a familiar tone that you remember all too well.

You freeze. You unwrap your arms from the journal, which has gone from blank to full of dreams to a gift. You present it to him and repeat Sollux's shaky words. "My name is Nepeta. Nepeta Leijon. And I..." Equius is staring at you now, in full. He looks shocked, looks surprised, looks familiar. "I know you."

He gingerly removes the journal from your hands. You've recorded dreams, hastily torn up the book and glued it back together, trying to assemble some sort of story in a chronological order. The journal holds the morose tale of two aliens who go romping about twelve worlds with their ten other friends. They fail at the task that was given to them. The twelve kids decide to reset themselves, become someone new.

You read this story and realized that Sollux Captor, the man who seemed nervous and fidgeted on your doorstep, was telling the truth.

But he's gone now, the yellow-blood psychic who could move mountains with his mind and fell in hearts with a ghost and a princess. You can't contact him, but before you sits a man whom you know with all of your diamonds. Death spans the gap between you, six hundred and twelve that you can remember.

Equius finishes reading the story of the friends. He sets the book to the side. He looks you in the eye. "Why did you try to find me? You would've stayed safe."

"I had to find you, you're my..." You trail off, return Equius' gaze. In every tale did the two friend meet, one who goes off and the other who chases. "My meowrail," you say.

Equius takes on the visage of one who has been stabbed in the heart. "You would've been safe, Nepeta, if only you didn't come chasing after me." He reaches to you, as if to hold you, as if to grasp you by the shoulders and never let go.

You let out the first of your strangled sobs. You crash into a familiar embrace. You let the years apart shrivel into nothing. It is here that you are home.

The hunt is over.

**Author's Note:**

> You may have died six hundred and twelve deaths at the hands of a higher power, but every time you had to.  
> The back of the boy, the man, the blue-blood mechanic who turned to leave the safe-room, it spoke levels to you.  
> "Come find me again."  
> And every time you chased, you answered.  
> "I will."


End file.
